My agent wants to write a shorter timeframe, but my mom who works in escrow is telling me that everything is delayed due to COVID.Thoughts and suggestions? 

Another market to plug into are traveling healthcare workers (nurses, physical therapists, physicians assistants, etc) www.furnishedfinder.com - they rent shorter term than a long term tenants but longer than VRBO & Airbnb. 

If I go with the hard money lender for the purchase, my understanding is there is typically a shorter seasoning period.   

My housekeeper even said this past January was the most she has ever made during that month because we were full and had so many shorter stays (2-3 days at a time).

Recently closed on a multifamily (5+ units) investment property and looking for a lender that has a shorter seasoning period. 

Do 12-month tenants have concerns about shorter-term people? 

In other markets like the SF the shape of those curve is very different with very prolonged periods of rapid expansion with shorter duration of contractions.

It sounds like you're also a fan of shorter amortizations to keep interest expense down. 

Because if you think about why, when a lender makes a guideline/overlay change to make their applications cleaner(higher FICO, reserves, strong DTI, low LTV, shorter terms) they know application count will be way down.

I have mainly 12 month leases, occassionally shorter terms of ot suits us (we prefer summer turnover).